Sex Differences in Neuromuscular Adaptations Following 12 Weeks of Kettlebell Swing Training

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are sex differences in strength, power, and muscular endurance gains following a 12-week kettlebell swing protocol. Twenty-eight men (29.4 ± 7.3 years; 176.4 ± 6.2 cm; 80.1 ± 11.0 kg; 146.0 ± 22.3 kg in deadlift; 1.8 ± 0.2 kg/body mass deadlift relative strength) and 25 women (32.3 ± 5.5 years; 162.5 ± 7.5 cm; 66.2 ± 9.7 kg; 92.4 ± 17.3 kg in deadlift; 1.4 ± 0.2 kg/body mass deadlift relative strength) participated in this study. Measures of strength in the deadlift, power in the countermovement jump, muscular endurance in the deadlift, and workout of the day (WOD) were obtained before and following six and 12-week time points. Both sexes showed pre- to post-test differences in strength (p < 0.001; one repetition maximum (1RM) improvement of 12.6% for men and 11.7% for women), power (p < 0.001; jump height improvement of 12.9% for men and 6.8% for women), and muscular endurance deadlift test (p < 0.001; improvement in deadlift repetitions of 24.5% for men and 29.2 for women), and only men improved performance in DT WOD (p < 0.001; WOD improvement of 21.3% for men and 1.3% for women). Furthermore, men had greater gains in the power test (p = 0.02) and in the DT WOD endurance test (p = 0.04). Kettlebell training appears to be an effective strategy for increasing strength, power, and endurance in both men and women, but considering the lower responses in power and DT WOD, other strategies should also be considered to optimize women's results in these tests.